Negative reinforcement (pressure/release) is not a bad training method. It's widespread for a reason; it provides relatively quick results, it's easy for horses to understand, and most horses do well with it. However, not all horses take well to pressure/release in every scenario.
Nova has taken incredibly well to positive reinforcement, in a way she hasn't to negative reinforcement. I think she's a balky horse, both literally and metaphorically. When you try to pressure her into something, it takes a lot of pressure, to the point that you're essentially using pain to get her to do what you ask. She's also very physically strong.
Halter training is still an issue, but wash stall training with r+ has gone incredibly well.
The most common way to train a horse for washing is to horse it until it stops moving, then 'reward' it by removing the water. It works, and for a lot of horses it works well. But for a lot of other horses it is very stressful. I have seen horses trained with this method who are trembling with the effort not to move, while doing whale eyes, lowering their ears, and constantly licking their lips - all signs of acute stress.
I tried this method with Nova once, and I never did it again. She was very reactive, and would've broken the cross tie in a panic if I'd kept going.
So I did the opposite. I put all thoughts of pressure/release aside and focused exclusively on keeping her below the threshold of stress. Whenever she tried to move away from the water, I stopped hosing her and stood still until she, too, stood still. Whenever she was nonreactive to the water, I held the water on her until she showed signs of wanting to move away and then, before she could move, I stopped hosing, clicked my tongue, and gave her a food reward.
At first I would hold the hose in front of her, then ask her to touch a target, so she had to step into the water to reach her target. After a couple sessions of this, I would hose her legs and ask her to touch the target at the same time. I haven't kept a tally, but today was roughly our 10th session, and I barely needed the target. I just held up the hose, making sure she could see what I was doing, slowly moved it to her hooves and up her legs, then clicked and rewarded when she had stood still long enough or when she was about to move away.
Zero signs of stress. She was alert and engaged the whole time. And most importantly, she still trusted me enough to show when she was uncomfortable (such as lifting her leg when I hit a sore spot, or taking a few steps away when she needed a break).
And this made me think of something. Pressure/release is not a bad training method in general, but not all horses work because they love to work. Some horses work because they get a reward at the end of the day. And the release of pressure is not a reward. Think about it - are you more willing to work when your "reward" at the end of the day is to no longer be under a time crunch or when your reward is monetary compensation?
Some animals work fine under pressure/release. But some don't. Maybe I'm projecting onto this horse, idk. I've never seen the point of working either, unless there's something in it for me.
